Zap2it.com - TV Heroes: Not Just for July 4th

Zap2it.com offers a lineup of TV heroes who exempiify the spirit of those who fought for U.S. independence. Below are my favorites from the lineup:

Clark Kent, "Smallville": OK, he isn't U.S.-born and -bred to the absolute letter - he didn't even have a visa with him when he landed on Earth from Krypton -- but this superpowered farm boy embodies every criterion of "truth, justice and the American way." Living in Kansas brings out even more of his down-home appeal, and even if his youthful adventures seem pretty localized, anyone who knows the rest of the story realizes Clark eventually will grow up to defend America (and, for that matter. the world) at large.

Napoleon Solo, "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.": It's a given that any agent of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement would be a hero, since the job required defending humanity from villains who had all sorts of grandiose schemes for world domination. That Solo consistently did it with such unyielding panache, often in the face of seemingly imminent death (Tied beneath a pendulum about to slice him in two? Not a problem) puts him even higher on the hero scale.

Buffy Summers, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer": Her tombstone on the series said it best: "She saved the world/A lot." And she did it at a tremendous personal price, not because there was something in it for her, but simply because she understood that's what she had been put on Earth for in the first place.

Angus MacGyver, "MacGyver": What is more traditionally American than using sheer mind power to get out of tight scrapes? And who had to do that more often than troubleshooter extraordinaire MacGyver? He had us at "hello," especially since in the show's pilot episode, he used an average chocolate bar to prevent a nuclear facility's complete meltdown.

Dr. Hawkeye Pierce, "M*A*S*H": The wisecracking, irreverent Korean War surgeon seemed to have few sacred cows. Yet he rarely hesitated to rail against the insanity and appalling human waste of war, while doing anything he could to help save the young lives thrust into harm's way by "statesmen" living safely half a world away.

Capt. James T. Kirk, "Star Trek": Despite series creator Gene Roddenberry's protestations that in his version of the 23rd century humans had become more enlightened, Kirk remained a red-blooded, independent thinker who was not afraid to kick the Prime Directive to the curb if he thought it was the right thing to do.